**This is a work in progress from the community, many members in this thread have contributed and I, as Karin player, thank you.

I’ve listed each character in alphabetical order, including known future DLC characters. If you want to contribute, simply join in the conversation and start posting. I will be updating this OP on a regular basis. These are just some of the ideas and strategies to deal with each matchup. Some are more extensive than others right now and that’s where the community comes in. Any tips or ideas are welcomed. The game is new and everyone is still trying to figure things out, as the game moves forward so will these match ups. Good luck and have fun.**

Alex:

Balrog:

Birdie:
He is a wall. He has good AA options so you have to close the gap on the ground. With that said it won’t be easy as his normals have good range to them. His s.MK is his usual combo starter, so block accordingly with whatever his mixs up. Use your s.MK as a poke. His V-Skill is punishable with Ressenha on reaction, don’t let him eat for free. Knock him down and stay on him, careful on the neutral jump as he can activate V-Trigger and the flame will hit thus leading him into a combo.

F.A.N.G.:
The poison wall can be V-Skilled to help push through. Both his slide and V-Reversal are throwable, don’t let him get away for free. He has no wake up so feel free to mix up things after a knockdown, this is where you want to be to beat him.

Guile:

Ibuki:

Juri:

Karin:

Ken:
Fireball happy, use Orochi/EX Orochi or EX Tenko to go through fireballs. V Skill with timing to eat up the fireballs or simply Ressenha over the fireballs. Punish his sweep with s.HP, usually opens him up for some good combos. Bait out Shoryukens, on whiff Crush Counter Combo.

Laura:
When she’s in close, look for bolt charge or elbow on block to punish. Karins’ normals are better, use them when you can. She has nothing on wake up, so you can be aggressive.M. Bison: Use cr.HP against his headstomp as he is usually right above you. His Inferno(ground flames) is unsafe and should be followed up with cr. MK > combo. Poke with s.MK to keep him at bay but beware of scissor kick, if your timing is good, you can catch him on start up but don’t rely catching it everytime.

Nash:

Necalli:
Block punish his s.HK and overhead attack with s.LP > Tenko. Block punish his sweep with your best combo. Your friend in this match up is s.MK, put it to work to hit confirm and poke. He has good normals but they are not the best, careful with his active V-Trigger it ups his mobility a bit and can throw off your timing on footsies and Tenko. His berserker slash is unsafe on block, punish it.

R. Mika:
R. Mika has four primary ways to approach and pretty much nothing else: dash up, jump in, charged s.HK, and slide. Dash up and jump in are universal options so we’ll skip those. Charged s.HK is easy to spot. When you see her prep for it, neutral jump HK and get big damage. If for some reason you fail to see it and you wind up blocking it, she will do one of two things: wail on s.LK for a Butt Slam combo or command grab (she’s +2 on block so beware). Slide is probably the trickiest but she can’t really convert off of it. Good spacing should take care of that. You can whiff punish it with a gang of stuff too. Punish blocked Butt Slams. Don’t have patterned jumps or she’ll eat you alive with Wingless Airplane. Ah! Yes! V-Trigger! It’s somewhat annoying but my general rule upon seeing her activate is start walking backwards and DON’T JUMP back (they love that little Wingless Airplane “trap” in this scenario).

Rashid:
Block punish Eagle Spike with c.HK/shimmy c.MK/Tenko/Orochi/CA, it’s so unsafe just punish it. Careful when you corner him, he has a nasty wall cross up that has to be reversed blocked. His V-Trigger is a bit crazy as your options are varied depending on how much space you have, do not jump back or try jumping over the tornado wall. Crouch block usually gets you out but be aware of his overhead elbow and EX Eagle Spike as it crosses over and can leave you vulnerable.

Ryu:
Fireball spam, use Orochi/EX Orochi or EX Tenko to go through fireballs. V Skill with timing to eat up the fireballs or simply Ressenha over the fireballs. Punish his sweep with s.HP, usually opens him up for some good combos. Bait out Shoryukens, on whiff Crush Counter Combo. If he keeps using his target combo, the last s.HK is a whiff on crouch, punish to your heart is content.

Urien:

Vega:
Walk him back. Watch for slide (though it is punishable unless it’s done at absolute max range). Sweep under his s.MP (this is crucial). Unless your opponent is a moron, Vega will be a real footwork test. Max range sweep and s.MK are your friends. Don’t jump in unless you really feel like they’re not expecting it. If you do it too much then you’ll eat CC s.HK > slide or VT > eventual death. Vega can use VT to escape the corner. He has no legit reversal. Knockdowns are brutal for him.

Zangief:
This matchup is in our favor pretty much across the board. He has no wake up pressure so stay on him with something meaty. Lariat is vulnerable to sweep, so punish if they are dumb enough to use it. Poke him with s.MK or s.HK, play the footsie game. He gets jumpy just use s.HP. Punish his s.HP with your own s.HP or m.Ressenha. For SPD and Running SPD, c.LP is your friend when in close, the start up for his command grabs are not great unless he uses EX Running SPD which has armor after 3 frames.

Looking for advice against Laura, mostly. Trying to see if her offense is completely safe, or where the holes are that I can safely punish.

Your footsies are better than Laura’s, but only as long as you keep her out of your face. Use s.LK and s.MK to keep her at a manageable distance and anti-air her if she tries to jump in at you. Punish her for trying to get in and stay on your toes in case she tries to dash in and throw you. Once you’ve established your game you can either keep outpoking her or try to initiate some offense of your own. I cannot stress this enough: you have to keep her out at all costs; if she gets in and starts pressing buttons in your face, at best you’ll eat a throw. At worst, you’ll eat CH’s into big damage all day.

any tips on the Cammy matchup? I’m finding it hard to defend against the pressure/cannon strikes with Karin’s anti-airs. if spaced correctly backdash s.HP and jb m.p are alright but only getting me so far.

any tips on the Cammy matchup? I’m finding it hard to defend against the pressure/cannon strikes with Karin’s anti-airs. if spaced correctly backdash s.HP and jb m.p are alright but only getting me so far.

EX Resenha is your main tool against her cannon strikes I havent been able to find normals that anti-air the strikes yet, but I havent taken it to the lab either so they might be out there just gotta find them.

Can’t give too much advice on the pressure though might be a little worth to eat a forward throw if your not in the corner and quick rise seeing as it kind of puts some distance between yall, but I’m a little lost in that department as well just try to out footsie her your st.mk and st.hk should wiff punishes all versions of her mk so if you can stay just outside of her st.mk range you should be able to punish any wiffed mk button from her

Seconding some chun advice. Karin seems very footsie heavy and chun can just walk all over face for free, whiff punishing any button you’d ever want to throw out and she can deal some serious pressure that Karin has no real answer for.

For bison you have to remember that the scissor kicks aren’t free. Every time you block one turn on the offense. Also he has no wakeup game so you can run all over him after a knockdown. If he v-triggers and gets in your face, don’t be afraid to use your v-reversal.

Also, here’s some more vega questions. How do I beat his normals when he has his claw on? And whats the best way to deal with his jump in heavy kick? It seems so difficult to anti air since it reaches so far. I only seem to get it with s.hp or cr.hp when hes jumping from pretty far away.